Bonacic Says He’s Open To Gun Control Bills

Republican Sen. John Bonacic in an interview Tuesday said he would be open to considering specific gun control legislation such as bans on bump stocks and extending the waiting period to purchase a gun so a more extensive background check is conducted.

“These requests in my mind are reasonable,” Bonacic said. “Those are a couple of things that I’m going to be advocating in my conference.”

His comments come the same day Assembly Democrats approved package of gun control measures, including an extreme risk protection order measure, banning bump stock possession and a strengthening background checks.

He’s also the second Republican to be open to specific gun control measures. Earlier in the day, Sen. Elaine Phillips backed gun control measures such as the bump stock ban.

Senate Republicans on Monday backed a package of school safety and security bills that would provide funding for armed resource officers and added technology. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is open to some of the school safety measures, but opposes adding resource officers with firearms in schools.

Bonacic, in the interview, suggested it’s unlikely any of the gun control measures will be taken up in the budget, due by March 29.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I think these will be standalone because the debate is expansive.”

Democrats in the chamber sought to add gun control measures — many of which were taken up by the Assembly — to hostile amendments that were voted down.

Bonacic insisted he wanted to see the debate de-politicized.

“It should be a bipartisan solution,” he said. “There’s a worthy discussion to have and we’re going to have a worthy discussion.”

This entry was posted by Nick Reisman on March 6, 2018 at 4:53 pm, and is filed under Republicans, State Senate. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.